Alternative Finance

The global financial crisis triggered many changes to the world’s financial system, including the ascension of alternative finance: financial channels, sources and instruments that exist beyond the traditional. Spurred on by the capital needs of fast-growing small and medium-sized firms and prospective real-estate buyers, alternative finance has mushroomed over the past 10 years into a multi-faceted, ever-evolving financial powerhouse capable of overcoming barriers to obtaining finance.

Alternative finance, the marriage of finance with technology, is transforming the financial-services industry by providing lending opportunities through popular vehicles such as peer-to-peer and crowd funding. The decentralization of lending is experiencing explosive growth around the world but especially in developing countries, in which budding entrepreneurs face limited conventional borrowing options.